Binance CEO Refutes Financial Watchdog Warning Reports

The CEO of Binance, currently the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has hit back at reports that the exchange is to receive a warning from Japan’s financial regulator over its operations in the country.

According to a report from Nikkei on Thursday that is being widely cited, the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) may be about to order the firm to cease offering services in the country since it is not registered with the regulator.

The report said the FSA is concerned that the company’s operations may pose a risk to the country’s investors and may lodge criminal charges with the police authorities if Binance does not comply with the registration mandate.

While currently the FSA has not yet published any formal statement, the report said the effort is aimed at providing a healthy cryptocurrency trading environment by tackling unregistered exchanges.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has since hit out at the reports, however, saying the firm is in dialogue with the regulator.

“Nikkei showed irresponsible journalism. We are in constructive dialogs with Japan FSA, and have not received any mandates. It does not make sense for JFSA to tell a newspaper before telling us, while we have an active dialog going on with them.”

The news comes as the FSA is beefing up its efforts to inspect domestic exchanges, as well as overseas cryptocurrency operations that solicit Japanese investors without a formal registration.

As reported previously by CoinDesk, the FSA issued multiple warnings last month to a Macau-based cryptocurrency project that provided bitcoin purchases and initial coin offering services to Japanese investors, following which the firm has shuttered its presence in Japan.